CHAPTER 1

Hey everypony. Drake here, and I'm finally back with the latest volume of 'One Pony's Tale: The Drake Chronicles'. As always, I want to thank those of you who have been following the story of Lt. Drake from the beginning. February 19th. That's when chapter one of volume one was posted. Four and a half months ago, and we're already at Volume 7. By Luna, it feels like ages ago, but it's only been a few months. At this rate, I'll probably have the entire saga done by Christmas. After which, I have many more MLP works. Comedies, grimdarks, crossovers and parodies. But for now, I hope you all enjoy Volume 7. Please review.

I was angry. No, I wasn't just angry. I was also distraught, desperate and edgy just thinking about my situation. Dashie and Budder stood at one side of the kitchen, knowing just by the look on my face, the volatile and dangerous situation we were all in. Of all the things that could befall us in our domestic life, this was one of the worst. As the situation worsened, I began to feel deeply worried about my mental health. How could I possibly survive this calamity? I groaned, and finally tossed the empty metal can across the room, landing it perfectly in the waste basket, removing its mocking presence from my sight.

"Drake?" Dashie said cautiously.

"Famine..." I muttered. "That's what it must be, guys...the Four Horses of the Apocalypse have been loosed, and they come delivering War, Famine, Pestilence and Death...a plague upon our house..."

"Bubby..." Budder nervously chimed in. "Calm down...it's only..."

"Only?" I interjected. "You realize angel...how bad this is? How can I ever hope to get anything done without coffee? How could we have forgotten the most important food item in the house?"

"Dude...chill." Dashie stated. "I know how much you love your coffee, but..." She sighed. "Look, if it's that big a deal, we can just go back to the store and get some coffee, you know?"

"Ugh..." I groaned. I pulled out a chair, and fell into it. I put my head on the dining table and waved my right hoof dismissively. "It's too far..."

"Geez, Drake..." Dashie sighed. "I think your sister's laziness is rubbing off on you." I heard Budder giggle.

"Dog days..." I sighed. "It's hot as Hell outside, and muggy to boot. Don't feel like doing anything. I'd go to the store again if I felt like walking that far. If I had some caffeine in my system, I'd feel like walking. But I don't. Because my brain defied me and forgot the damned coffee."

"Hot?" Budder asked. "Didn't you fight in the desert...back in your cavalry days?"

"That was dry heat." I said quickly. I looked up at my marefriend and my sister. They seemed to be somewhat enjoying my misery, like they were watching a play about a great pony falling from power because of a well-placed literary weakness in his character. "I'll go to the Up-All-Night down the road tonight and get some." I explained.

"Only you go to a store to buy coffee at night." Rainbow Dash commented.

"Best time to go shopping." I returned. "Nopony else in the stores." I yawned. I hate being out of coffee. It always gave me a headache. In fact, my head was pounding like the knocking at the door. Wait...

"Can you get that?" I asked, rubbing my temples. Dashie moved to answer the door, and my sister sat down beside me, and started petting my black mane comfortingly.

"Ah, my favorite detective..." A familiar voice greeted. I looked up to see Princess Luna standing in my kitchen. Now my head really hurt. My marefriend and my secret admirer were together in the same room.

"Your highness." I greeted back.

"Oh Drake, how oft must we ask you to call...me Luna?"

"Always once more." I said with a grin.

"Are you well?" Luna asked. "You look ill, Drake."

"He's out of coffee, Princess Luna." My sister answered. "To him, that's almost like being turned into a zombie."

"Oh, I see." Luna mused. "Well, we must fix that so we can speak." With that, Luna's horn lit up with an aura of magic, and with a small flash of dark blue light, a large mug of dark, hot coffee appeared in front of me. I stared at it in disbelief for a moment, then turned to the princess of the night.

"Oh, my beloved Princess...thank you!" I praised, taking the mug, and drinking a third of it quickly, replacing the missing caffeine in my system. Luna giggled.

"Huzzah! I have un-zombied Drake!" She jested. My sister laughed. "Would'st you three like to know why I have called now?" Luna asked.

"A case?" Dash asked.

"Maybe." I answered. I turned back to Luna. "Usually if there's a regular run-of-the-mill case, your sister is the one to pay us a visit. And you're not one for social calls, Your Highness. My guess is that it must be a case involving something of your particular domain."

"Ha. Your powers of deduction are as sharp as ever." Luna said proudly. "In fact, I do have a mystery for you three. Even your sister can lend her expertise in this case, perhaps." I glanced at Budder, who was now paying close attention.

"Is this a...supernatural case then?" I asked suspiciously.

"There is indeed a possibility of that." Luna replied. "Are you familiar with quartz mining?"

"I'm afraid not." I said.

"Well there are numerous quartz mines in the western territories of Equestria, and the one which has particular bearing to this mystery is one of the largest and most profitable. The mine has been turning out an impressive amount of quartz, which is used in clocks, watches, jewelry and numerous other things. Of late...the mine has been somewhat...abandoned."

"Okay...I don't like where this is going..." I sighed.

"Miners have reported hearing the most ghastly noises inside the mine, and a few even claim to have witnessed spirits. I say witnessed, but in fact...they were chased from the mine by the apparitions."

"Uh-huh." I said, not really excited to get tied up in another paranormal case. The last one nearly killed us, and I have a personal philosophy about going up against things I can't kill, injure, arrest, or at least threaten.

"Wait..." Budder spoke up. "Isn't quartz like...able to hold energy in it? And ghosts appear around places where there's a lot of quartz and stuff underground?"

"Very good!" Luna smiled. "My dear sister was right. You are becoming quite the expert on the paranormal." My sister smiled proudly.

"Uh-huh." I said again. "Any chance that it's not ghosts?"

"Well...therein is the crux, Drake." Luna explained as I took another drink of coffee. "If the paranormal activity in the mine is as strong as the workers have reported, I should have been able to sense a deep reservoir of spirit energy. Nearly everyplace has a certain degree of energy attached to it, including the mine, but not enough to warrant the amount of activity that has been going on there. Unless there is some sort of barrier to prevent anypony from sensing it, like was the case in the evil house you three defeated."

"Okay...so let me try to work this out, milady..." I stated. "Either the mine is infested with evil spirits out for blood, or somepony's trying to make everypony think it is, maybe in order to get control of the quartz for their own profit...sound about right?"

"Indeed."

"So we're either up against some two-bit land-swindlers in Nightmare Night costumes, or it's gonna be the Hell House all over again. Wonderful."

"I wouldn't have come to you if there was anypony else I could trust with this matter. If anypony can solve this mystery, it is you." Luna said with a slight bow of her head. "Will you take the case?"

"I can't deny a request from a friend in need." I replied. Luna smiled gratefully.

"And do not worry, Drake..." She added. "I will make sure you are paid handsomely for your work."

"I do not doubt that, your highness, and we will take the case." I said in an unenthusiastic tone.

"Is...something wrong, Drake?" Luna queried.

"Eh, this muggy, hot weather is killin' me." I complained. "Not only does it feel like a Turkeyish bath, but my old war wounds are achin'. You'd think I'm too young for arthritis, heheh." Luna's face fell.

"When you get back, I'll make sure to send my personal doctor to treat you." Luna said seriously.

"Aw now, don't make a fuss over me..." I waved. "It's just some aching bones."

"Of course I will make a fuss. You're not only the finest detective in all of Equestria, but a loyal friend and confidant. I do not like to hear of your feeling badly."

"You and me both." Budder agreed, starting to pet me again, with a worried look on her face.

"Ahh." I groused. "I'm alright. And at least we'll be heading out west..." Everypony looked at me questioningly a moment. "Out there, at least it's dry heat." I drained the cup of coffee and stood, stretching my joints. "Alright guys, better get us some bags packed. Princess, just tell us where to go, and how to get there, and we're on the job." I thought for a moment. "And guys, don't let me forget to buy some coffee."

And so begins another adventure for Lieutenant Drake and family. What awaits them on this mystery? I hope you all enjoyed the opening chapter. I will try to have chapter 2 up late tonight or early tomorrow afternoon. I have nothing better to do with my time now but write and be depressed, so expect multiple chapters a day. Please review and tell me what you think. Until next chapter, as always, thanks for reading, everypony!

CHAPTER 2

Hey everypony. Sorry for the delay in getting this chapter out. I had family business to attend to, and couldn't work on it. It really worked out for the better anyhow. I hadn't even thought about writing a chapter such as this in Volume 7, but because I had some time to think it out, I decided to change the story up a little from what I'd initially planned, and add a little extra that I think is gonna make this one of the more emotionally and psychologically poignant episodes of Drake's life now. It's probably not gonna be as fun and exciting as some of the previous fics, but this story has a surprise buried within it that I'm sure all of the long-time Drake fans may have been waiting for. So without further ado, here is chapter 2. Enjoy.

We were nearly alone in the train car as we traveled west to the quartz mine where some mysterious something had stopped the mining operations and scared the Hell out of the workers. I looked around the train car. Dashie sat beside me, and in the next seat, my sister was laying on the seat asleep, one leg hanging off the edge of the padded bench comically. Near the front of the car, two other ponies, a mare and a stallion sat together. Dashie was fully engrossed in an adventure novel she had packed for the trip. I gazed out the window. We had entered the western territory long ago, and the lush green fields and forested hills had given way to dusty grasslands and rocky outcroppings. I sighed. The terrain was all too familiar to me, despite the fact that I hadn't seen this part of the country in three years. I guess it never left me.

The train slowed to a stop at a station in some small frontier town. The couple got off, and a few passengers climbed aboard. Among them was a stallion wearing a gray shell jacket and a slouch hat. I saw by the yellow chevrons and rockers on his sleeves that he was a quartermaster sergeant in the cavalry. The cavalrypony spotted me sitting there in my slouch hat and saber belt, and cocked his head slightly, probably surprised to see another soldier. He walked along the aisle and took a seat behind me and Rainbow Dash. The train shuddered, and began to creep forward. Soon, we were gaining speed. After a few minutes, the soldier finally spoke.

"Hey. Sergeant Buckle." He greeted. "7th Cav. How are ya?" I turned my head to the stranger.

"Alright I guess." I replied. "Where are you headed, sergeant?" Dashie looked at me a moment, smiled, then went back to reading.

"Fort Defiance." He answered. "Coming back from leave. Bet they ain't been able to count the beans and taters since I've been gone, either."

"Hehehe..." I had to chuckle. It had been a while since I'd been able to have a casual conversation with a military pony. I sort of missed it.

"What outfit you with?" Buckle asked.

"Oh. Sorry sergeant. Lieutenant Drake, 12th Cavalry, but I'm currently assigned to CID, Military Police Division as a detective."

"Oh shit." Buckle gasped. He stood up from his seat and saluted. "Sorry Lieutenant. Didn't realize I was addressing a superior officer, sir." I grinned.

"Oh...at ease, sergeant. If I cared about being saluted and stuff, I'd be in my full uniform." I said with a halfhearted salute. The sergeant sat down with a nervous chuckle.

"So where are you headed, lieutenant?" Buckle asked. "Somepony getting court-martialed? Hope it's nopony I know."

"Heh. No...official business from Princess Luna." I said. I thought of the best way to phrase it without giving too much away, or having to talk about ghosts and devils. "I was sent to investigate some problems on some Equestrian land out here. I guess the Interior Department couldn't handle it themselves. Either that, or the Interior ponies and the Mines and Minerals guys got into an argument over whose jurisdiction it was, and they decided to solve it by sending the cavalry. Ain't that how it always is?" It was all just witty soldier talk, and Sergeant Buckle knew it. It was obvious that I wasn't able to divulge anything about my business out here, and he as an NCO knew not to press.

"So, what's been going on out here on the frontier?" I asked. "I've been out of the regular cav for a few years."

"Ah well...not much." Buckle explained. "It's been peaceful out here for the most part. There was a bit of trouble up north in Appleloosa between the Buffalo and the townsponies a couple a' months back, but they came to an agreement. Cavalry didn't even have to get involved."

"That's good." I said thoughtfully. I was more than happy that the bloodshed was finally over. Maybe it took one great, horrible, bloody disaster to be the turning point. As bad as it had been, the massacre of my squad had been the turning point in the Buffalo wars, and now both races lived together in poeace. That didn't make me feel much better...even knowing that the awful things that had happened to me and the troopers under my command had finally brought peace to this land didn't undo the pain and death I had been part of. I realized that it would be best not to dwell on it too much.

"What's Fort Defiance like now?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Well, with things getting peaceful out here, there's less of a military presence." Sergeant Buckle explained. There's still a garrison at Defiance. Couple companies of the 7th, some grenadiers, and a company of the 8th Cav and their Buffalo scouts. That's about it. Your old outfit got transferred a couple of years back when the frontier battalion was disbanded."

"That's what I heard." I nodded.

"Now half of the old forts are closed down, sold to civilians who use 'em as trading posts. Defiance is turning into a regular little city. Another five years, and they'll probably take the 'Fort' off the front of it. Hell, another ten years, and the Wild West won't be wild anymore."

"Hm." I mused. "That's civilization for you." I was silent a moment. "What forts were shut down?"

"I don't know all of them." Buckle answered. "I just know that Sweetwater and Mesquite were permanently closed when the 1st Frontier Battalion was disbanded. A couple more were decommissioned last year. The only reason I know is because I had to handle the equipment and supplies coming back in when they vacated those places."

"Right..." I said. I had to ask the next question. I had to know. "What about the settlement of Rawhide. They um...they ever build that town back...after what happened?"

"Ugh...sad thing that happened to those folk." Buckle commented. "It's a ghost town now. Nothing there but burnt out buildings and a graveyard. Nopony would move there after what happened." I looked to see Rainbow Dash looking at me with a thinly-veiled worried expression. I gave her an unsure look and heaved a sigh. We all sat in silence a few minutes more, before Buckle spoke up again. "Your um...your family, sir?"

"Yeah, sergeant...this is my marefriend, Rainbow Dash. The filly over there passed out on the chair is my little sister, Budder Sabre."

"Nice to meet you, ma'am." Sergeant Buckle said, tipping his hat to Dashie politely. "You got a nice-lookin' family, sir."

"The best I could ask for." I said proudly. Dashie smiled and nuzzled me affectionately.

"They goin' with you...on your investigation, I mean?" Buckle asked.

"Yeah. Dashie here is a detective too. My partner, as...unorthodox as that is." I nodded toward Budder. "My sister too. Believe it or not, she's acting under the authority of Princess Luna right now. She's a little genius...when she can screw her brain in right."

"Heheheh..." Buckle laughed. "You're a lucky stallion, Drake. Get to spend that much time with your family and get paid for it. My wife lives back east, and I only get to see her when I go on leave. Nothing I look forward to more than rotating out and getting home." I smiled. We all sat in silence, listening to the rhythmic clackety-clack of the train's wheels on the rails. Soon, we reached a populated area, and the train began to slow.

"Well lieutenant, this is my stop...Fort Defiance." Sergeant Buckle stated, standing from his seat. "Best of luck with your business."

"Good talking to ya." I nodded. "Oh, and sergeant? You wouldn't know if Fort Mesquite is still standing, would you?"

"Well, I don't see why not. Probably just an empty fort now, unless the termites and jackrabbits moved in. Why?"

"No reason. Figured I might show my family some old forts, you know?" I lied.

"Well, enjoy your work and your free time out here." Buckle returned. He started up the aisle as the train came to a stop. "Ma'am." He said, tipping his hat to Dash again. He looked down at my sister, who was still unconscious. "Younger ma'am." He said, tipping his hat, and shooting me a grin. "Take care, lieutenant."

"And you, sergeant." With that, the NCO left the train, and I reclined in my seat. We had another two hours to go, and this trip was already turning out to be a trip down memory lane I hadn't counted on.

And so ends chapter 2. I hope you all enjoyed it. Drake not only has a mystery to solve, but it looks like he's about to face down a few elements of his past as well. Will this journey west prove to be the catharsis he's always needed, or will the strange case he's on much everything up even worse? Stay tuned to find out. I'll try to have chapter 3 up soon, unless more unforeseen events prevent me from doing so. Until next chapter, thanks for reading, everypony!

CHAPTER 3

I'm back, everypony. As promised, I got chapter three up in good time. I like being able to post like this, and I'll do so as much as possible. This is one of those rare stories that just seems to flow forth without much effort or the onset of writer's block, and I hope it stays that way. I hope you're all enjoying the story so far. If so, I won't keep you from it. Here's chapter 3. Please review, loyal readers.

We stood on the wooden platform as the train began to move in reverse. I never understood the concept of railroading's 'end-of-the-line' procedure. If the track is at an end, why not put a loop in it, or a turntable or something, so the train doesn't have to back up until it gets back to the main line? But there it went, the colorful train chugging its way back the way it came, looking like a multicolored caterpillar trying to awkwardly crawl backwards.

"What do we do now, bub?" Budder asked.

"Well, somepony was supposed to meet us here and take us to the mine." I answered. "But he's apparently not here yet. I guess we wait." I sat down on the edge of the platform, and Dash and Budder sat on either side of me as we killed time until our contact arrived. Behind the covered trainstop were a few buildings, mostly warehouses, and beyond that, there was a small town, probably didn't even have a name. I picked up a piece of gravel, and threw it out into the desert where it belonged.

"So you actually lived out here when you were in the cavalry?" My sister asked, looking around at the barren landscape.

"Yep." I answered simply. "About eight years I was out here."

"Wow..." Budder commented. "What was there to do for fun?"

"Not much." I said. "Watch the cactus grow?" I shot Budder a grin. "Honestly? There wasn't much to do, so we had to come up with our own entertainment."

"Like what?" Budder queried.

"You really wanna know all of this?" I sighed.

"Well, you never really told me anything about when you were in the cavalry." She responded. "I just...I want to know more about you, you know?"

"Hm." I grunted. "Well, we had a snowball war at the fort once."

"A snowball war?" Dashie asked with a hint of disbelief. "Dude...really?"

"Heheh. Yeah...it was my idea." I said.

"You know sweetie...I can believe that." My marefriend remarked. Budder giggled.

"We didn't really do much out here but patrol the frontier. I never had as much fun as I do with you two. As...open as this place is, there's isolation, you know? You wouldn't believe it unless you live out here for a long tome, but even with all this space, you sometimes feel like you're in a jail cell. It's suffocating sometimes."

"You have any friends?" Budder asked. I looked down at the tracks below me for a few moments.

"Yeah...I did, sis." I replied. "All the troopers under my command. We um...we had some good times."

"You okay talkin' about all this?" Dashie asked, putting her right foreleg around me. I took a deep breath, inhaling the desert air I hadn't breathed in so long.

"Yeah...I think I am." I said with a nod. "Being here kinda makes it seem like it's not just a memory...or a bad dream. It sorta makes it easier. Something about this land, I guess." We sat there silently, all three of us kicking our hind legs lightly into the air as we sat on the edge of the wooden platform.

"So...um..." Dashie began nervously. "She was at the fort?" I stopped kicking and stared out along the seeming infinity of tracks for a while.

"Yep." I replied. "My scout."

"What...what was she like?" Dash asked. I looked at my rainbow-maned marefriend, and gave her a sad little smile.

"She was..." I exhaled. "She was about as stubborn and cocky as you, Dashie..." I said. "Even more so, maybe."

"Is that possible?" Dash quipped, taking a rare stab at herself. I scoffed lightly.

"With Spring? Yes." I thought for a minute. "Something happened to her...she lost her family to the Buffalo. She became Hell-bent on revenge. I had to keep her on a short leash to keep her from getting too bloodthirsty sometimes."

"Geez..." Dash commented.

"That's how it was out here back then." I muttered.

"How did you two hook up, bub?" Budder asked.

"I think in a way, we kept each other from going crazy in our own two ways. She was the cold one...and I guess I was the one who thought about things too much..."

"Huh?" My sister asked, puzzled.

"Something she said once. That I thought too much. That I was too...nice to live in the violent world that this place was. She was right in the end. That's why I ended up doing what I did. That's why I messed up, and why I'm not in the regular cavalry now."

"Oh Drake..." Dashie said comfortingly, hugging me. My sister joined in, throwing her forelegs around me.

"Look at it like this. If I had stayed where I was...I wouldn't have ever met you, Dashie." I said, feeling tears in my eyes. "And I would've never even known that you existed, angel." I sniffed. "Oh Celestia...if I hadn't gone through Hell back then, I wouldn't be in Heaven now."

"I love you, Drake." Budder whimpered, holding me tightly. I felt Rainbow Dash squeeze me even more.

"I love you guys." I said. "My life's been so great since I found you two."

"Hey, ours has been pretty awesome too, ya know?" Dash added.

"Heh..." I chuckled, drying my eyes. "Well, I try."

"And you're the best big brother ever!" Budder stated.

"Well, I have the best lil' sis ever, so it just comes naturally." I smiled. "Ohhh...one good thing about being in the desert, guys..." I said. My marefriend and my sister looked at me questioningly. "My arthritis ain't bothering me anymore."

"Um...Lieutenant Drake?" A voice said from behind us. I stood and turned to see a tall, tan earth pony stallion with a curly yellow mane and tail.

"Yes..." I answered.

"Hi. My name's Carbide Bit. I'm the forepony of the mine you were sent to check out." He greeted. "Thanks for coming so soon, by the way."

"Not a problem." I returned. "This is Rainbow Dash and Budder Sabre. I'm sure Princess Luna told you they'd be coming too."

"Yeah, of course." Carbide Bit answered. "I'll take you guys to the site, and...I tell you, I hope you're as good as the Princess says. I wanna get this mess cleaned up and get the mine back in operation."

"Is it that bad?" I pressed.

"Most of my miners won't even go near the jobsite anymore. We were pulling two tons of quartz a day outta that hole, and now it's just sitting there abandoned. The mine doesn't make any money, I don't make any money, and the miners don't make any money. That happens, this little town here dries up in the sun."

"You ever see or hear anything in the mine?" I questioned.

"Once or twice." Carbide Bit nodded gravely. "I've been in the mining game for twelve years. Started with a pick in my hoof and worked my way up. I've mined coal, diamonds, iron...and I've never heard of anything like this..."

"What did you see exactly?" I pressed.

"See? Nothing." He answered. "I heard a dang-awful moaning coming from one of the unused shafts once. Scared me half to death. Nopony ever goes in there, but it sounded like a torture dungeon or something. Another time, we'd shut down early, back when all the miners started getting' spooked and quitting, right? Well we were only running two shifts, and started closing at night, from one in the morning til nine. We'd shut everything down, and most of the guys had gone already. I was checking all the equipment before I left, me and the shift supervisor, and we heard the sound of a pick working down in the shaft. We looked at each other funny, and walked over to the opening. I hollered down in there 'Hey, who's down there?' And it stopped. A minute later, it started up again."

"You go down to investigate?" I asked.

"Nope. Neither one of us did." The forepony admitted. "It was just too weird."

"Anything else happen that was out of the ordinary?" I continued. "I mean, other than the miners seeing ghosts and hearing strange noises?"

"You ever hear of tommyknockers, Lieutenant?" He asked.

"Nope. Budder?"

"Isn't that a kind of ghost that warns you about something bad getting ready to happen by knocking on stuff?" My sister inquired.

"Yes it is. It's a superstition among miners." Carbide Bit replied. "Well a couple of weeks ago, one of the last crews that would still work down there said they heard something. They said it sounded like a tapping or a knocking sound coming from the wall of the shaft. They couldn't find out where it was coming from. That night, after everypony left, there was an explosion in one of the side shafts. We never could find out what could have caused it. If anypony'd been down there when it happened, they'd have been killed for sure."

"Uh-huh..." I mused. Still not enough information to go off of yet. If it was supernatural, I'd let Budder handle it, and Dash and I would back her up. If it wasn't, then it was my domain. Still had to figure out which it was though.

"You wanna see the mine?" The forepony asked. "We still have plenty enough time to get there before it gets dark."

"Yeah. Take us there." I said. "There a place on site where we can stay?"

"Yessir. There's a couple of shacks on the job that have bunks and stuff. Ain't the best amenities you can ask for, but it's a shack."

"Alright. We'll camp in one of those." I nodded. "You guys ready to get started?"

"Yep!" My sister answered.

"You bet." Dashie stated.

"Alright." I said, looking back to the mine forepony. "Lead the way."

Sounds like the case keeps getting spookier and spookier, eh? Is the family of detectives up against a cadre of spectral miners? What will they find when they get to the mine and begin their investigation? You'll all just have to keep following the story to find out. Hopefully, I can get chapter 4 up tonight. If not, look for it tomorrow afternoon. So until then, please send me your reviews, and as always, thanks for reading, everypony!

CHAPTER 4

I know, I know...I promised another last time that another chapter would be posted forthwith. My life is very unpredictable, and I don't even know what I'm gonna be doing from day to day. I can say that usually, I can post a chapter or two a day through the week, but Friday and Saturday, I don't even write. That's about the norm. As for this story, it's actually turning out better than I'd originally thought it was going to be. I have about half of The Drake Chronicles actually written out. The other half exist only as plot bunnies in my mind. This is one such story, meaning that I'm pretty much writing it from scratch, with little more than a good idea about the general plot, and a vague concept of all the details. I hope that you've all been enjoying it, what precious few readers you are. I do appreciate you all, and I'm greatly honored by the ones of you who have followed Drake's story from the very beginning. SO without further ado, here is chapter 4 of volume 7. Enjoy, and don't forget to drop me a review, everypony!

The opening in the hillside stood there like an open mouth, ready to swallow whole anypony who dared enter. Of course, that's just me waxing poetic again. It was just a simple mine opening, which started in the side of a small hill, and descended at a slight downward angle into the ground. I walked to just inside the entrance to the mine, and peered inside. I perked up my ears, listening for any odd sounds. It was impossible to see more than a few yards into the mine shaft, and my ears could only pick up the steady drip-drip of water coming from somewhere inside the pony-made cave.

"So this is the portal to hell?" I asked, turning to Carbide Bit, the forepony of the mine.

"That's the main entrance." He replied. "I have a plan of the mine...a map I can give you, if you plan on going in and checking things out."

"Yeah, we'll need that...and some lanterns...three hardhats, and anything else you think we'll need in there." I said, looking back into the mine. "Hey sis...what do you think about this place?" Budder walked up beside me and gazed into the darkness of the mine.

"I dunno...could be haunted." She answered. "Sure looks creepy enough."

"Creepy and dark do not a haunted mine make..." I muttered. I turned to the forepony. "So this is the only way in and out of this mine?"

"Yeah. Now that we have a fairly extensive underground operation, one of the side shafts is scheduled to be dug back to the surface a little ways from here for use in emergencies, or during busy shifts. Like I said, there's two air shafts, but they ain't big as anything. So for now, you're looking at the only entrance."

"Alright. We'll set up in one of those cabins for the night." I stated. "See if we can't catch these ghosts of yours."

"Umm..."

"He doesn't think it's really ghosts." Dashie said to Carbide Bit. The forepony looked at my marefriend and back to me.

"I always like to assume somepony's up to no good before I start looking at any other angles." I explained. "If it is ghosts, it's my sister's problem."

"Oh." Carbide Bit said, confused. "Well, I hope it ain't really ghosts, myself. Easier to throw a living pony out of the mine than a...ghost one."

"That's what I'm hopin'," I said dryly.

…...

The cabin was a rough lumber structure with a wooden floor, and had obviously been built to house several mine workers at a time, albeit not in any style or comfort. The structure was comprised of one room, about five yards by seven yards in size contained two bunk beds, a table and two chairs, a cast iron stove and nothing else. It wasn't the spacious lodgings the Princesses usually put us up in while on investigations, and it sure wasn't home sweet home. Still, the little shack had everything we needed for our stay: Beds, a table, lanterns, and a window to watch the mine entrance from. So that's what we did.

As soon as the sun started to set, the three of us covered two of the three windows in the shack, leaving only the one facing the mine unobstructed. We didn't light a lantern, or even a single candle for fear that if there was a rational explanation for all of this, somepony would notice us. We had to be invisible, and hope the culprits (hopefully living ones) would take advantage of the mine being deserted, and stumble into our grasp. That meant sitting quietly in a dark cabin for Celestia knows how long. The darkness was nothing to me. I had bigger problems. I wanted a cup of coffee so bad, but couldn't light the wood-burning stove.

"So...how long do we have to sit here in the dark?" Budder asked between the quiet crunch of the sunflower seeds she was eating.

"Dashie asked me the same thing the first time I took her on a stakeout." I answered in a low voice.

"Really?" My sister asked.

"Yep." Dashie whispered from somewhere in the darkened room.

"Know what I told her?" I asked.

"Huh?" Budder inquired.

"You can sit and wait for hours, even days, and nothing will happen. Or, BAM...it can happen all of a sudden. You never know, and you gotta be ready for both..." There was silence in the inky blackness for a few moments, then I heard the sharp pop of a sunflower seed hull.

"Bored." My sister voice sighed.

"I know." I groaned quietly. "Perps never make things easy. I wish the asshats would hurry up and get here...and bring me a double espresso when they come." I sighed. "Dashie...time." There was the dim strike of a shielded match in the corner of the room, followed by the click of a pocketwatch, and the light was quickly extinguished. Good Dash...you remember what I taught you about light discipline.

"Midnight. Or ten till, actually." My marefriend whispered back.

"Ugh...damn. Sis, you're right, this is going nowhere. You guys want to go skulk around and see what we can see?"

"Sure." Budder said.

"I'm game." Dashie answered.

"Alright, come on. A lantern each. Both you guys take a hardhat too. Ugh. I've been undercover a few times, but this is the first time I've ever gone underground to solve a crime."

So ends Chapter three, and our trio are now officially on the case. And now, they're preparing to venture into the dark chasm below. What will they find in the mine, spirits or malefactors? I will have the next chapter up soon, I promise. And I promise it will be longer and more entertaining. Until then, thanks for reading, everypony.

CHAPTER 5

Hey everypony. I'm back with another chapter, just as I promised. I hope you enjoy this one. On a minor note, this volume will not be as lengthy as some of the others, so expect no more than 10 chapters or so. I'll try to get a chapter or two a day up, unless life gets in the way. Anyhow, here's chapter five. Please review, my loyal readers...and enjoy.

We entered the mine cautiously, our lanterns casting their yellow glow onto the stone walls of the pony-made cave. Rainbow Dash and Budder stuck close behind me as we ventured deeper and deeper into the mine. None of us had ever gone this deep underground, and despite the fact that were all three wearing hardhats, I couldn't help but feel a little nervous. Mines were dangerous places. At any moment, there could be a cave-in, or a gas explosion. Ponies could become lost in the labyrinth of passages inside a mine. OF course my sister had her own concern about this little spelunking trip. Spiders. She must have asked me a dozen times if there were going to be spiders down here. I didn't know about spiders, but as we walked into the mine, I kept a close watch on the floor for anything long and scaly.

It was nearly impossible to track in here. When the floor of the tunnel wasn't solid rock, any hoofprints in the fine dust would have been utterly obliterated by the volume of hoof traffic from miners. Tracking in an area frequented by many ponies is always difficult, if not outright impossible. The low light of the mine made it even worse in this case. I periodically paused, looking up from the floor of the mine to the walls, inspecting the pick-marks left during excavation for a sign that somepony had been doing anything out of sorts in here.

All the while, my brain was turning over the possibilities. Say this was a criminal case. That would mean there had to be a good reason why the criminals were here, in this particular mine, and why they were going to the trouble of scaring everypony else off. Okay mind, start putting it together. This was a profitable quartz mine. One of the best in the region. So if a few badponies came in and scared off the workers, the mine would close. If the owners couldn't get anypony to work here, they'd have to sell for probably just a few thousand bits. Then the schemers could buy it up cheaply, and start their own mining operation, and make a killing. Not the quickest or easiest way to get rich on their part, but not all criminals were brilliant, or had their sights set on world domination. Some liked to keep their dreams small.

Then again, there could be an underlying factor I wasn't seeing. Maybe the perps wanted this mine, but not for the quartz. With all of the domestic and international terrorism lately, and with all of the smuggling rings that had been broken in the past couple years, it was not a fargone conclusion that this wasn't about a criminal ring wanting an isolated base of operations, or a secret place to stash their stolen goods. Okay, it had to be one of the two. There was no other rational explanation for why and how criminals would be running a game like this. There was always the possibility that it was ghosts, but I couldn't process that right now.

"Hey Drake..." Dashie called. "You think this tunnel is important?" I stopped and looked at Dash, who was standing at a boarded-up entrance to another shaft. I pulled the mine plans out of my saddlebag, and unrolled the map on the dusty floor. We gathered around the plans, and placed our lanterns at three corners of it to hold it open while I followed the route we had taken.

"Okay...we're right here..." I muttered, pointing a hoof at a spot on the map about a hundred and fifty yards from the entrance. "So that means that is the shaft where the forepony heard the screaming. I looked back at the opening. "Seems like a good a place as any to start. Help me pull these boards loose." After a few minutes of work, we had managed to tear down the barrier blocking off the unused mine shaft. I stuck the map back into my saddlebag and grabbed the lantern in my teeth, leading Dash and Budder into the new tunnel. We hadn't traveled far into the shaft, when I saw my first sign. I stopped dead, and looked at the condemning evidence.

"What is it, bubby" My sister asked in a hushed voice.

"There is a lantern...hanging from the roof beam." I answered.

"So?" Dash asked. "We're in a mine. There's lanterns hanging everywhere."

"In an unused, abandoned shaft?" I shot back. "And there's another one." I continued, walking along further. I passed the second hanging lantern, and walked about fifty feet more. "And another. And I'll bet you two that they're full of oil."

"Somepony's been here." Rainbow Dash stated.

"Yep." I agreed. "I think our...ghosts...needed some light to do their haunting."

"But ghosts don't need light." My sister said. I slowly turned my head and looked at her incredulously.

"Um...that was the point...angel..." I said slowly. I saw her face turn as the situation dawned on her.

"Oh...derp." She sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Come on guys. This little mystery probably isn't gonna be that mysterious by the time we get to the end of this tunnel." I said, leading my family deeper into the mine. Along the way, I noticed more lanterns hanging from the thick wooden beams on the ceiling of the cavern. Not only that, but I started noticing something else odd as well, and finally ran ahead to inspect a telling piece of evidence I would have to work into my theory somehow. By the time Dash and Budder joined me, I was already staring at odd bulges in the wall, grottoes extending back into the otherwise flat walls, almost like...

"New excavation..." I stated.

"How can you tell?" Dash asked.

"Look at the marks in the rock. They look fresher than the pick and chisel marks in the older part of the wall. And look at all the rock dust on the floor of the mine here. These were made recently...and it looks like somepony's been starting a new tunnel here. And up there."

"But why?" Budder asked.

"I do not know..." I replied. This was new information to me, and it didn't make any sense. This part of the mine was shut down because there was no quartz here. So why were they digging? More space to do whatever it was they were doing down here? We walked further until we came to the end of the tunnel. "Uh...huh..." I mused. At the end of the tunnel, loose rock and debris was everywhere, and judging from the amount of material piled along the walls, and the new timbers bracing up the ceiling, there was no questioning that the shaft had been excavated at least fifty feet beyond how long it had used to be. Unused mine timbers were stacked against one side of the mine shaft, ready to be used. Loose aggregate covered the end of the shaft, rock and dirt piled against the wall for some reason. More strange behavior on the part of the mysterious miners. Okay...so I'd been wrong about the mystery being undone. It had just gotten worse.

"Alright...let's go back." I said. "I think we've seen all we're gonna see for now. I gotta process all of this."

"Whaddya think they're up to?" Rainbow Dash asked me, my marefriend poking around in the rubble with a hoof.

"I really don't know. According to the foreman, there's no quartz in this shaft. That's why they stopped mining in here. But it looks like the ponies doing all this have been in here digging away...extending this shaft, and starting to dig two more. It don't make any sense...ugh. I hate criminals that don't make sense. It just makes it harder to catch them."

"You wanna head back?" Budder asked. I sighed.

"Yeah...nothing's gonna happen tonight. We'll just have to do all this again tomorrow."

"What about the screaming?" Dash asked. "What do you think caused all the screaming and junk that scared everypony?"

"Hm. Think I at least figured that one out." I replied. "And maybe why there's explosions down here. Gonna have to check out the other shaft to say for sure though."

"What do you mean?" My sister questioned.

"See those little round indentations in the wall there?" I asked, pointing to a group of three inch wide holes in the rock wall. "Those were made by a drill. I've never heard a drill boring through rock, but I'm willing to bet it sounds a lot like somepony moaning like they're dying." I gave the shaft another look, then turned back and started to walk the way we had come.

"So all this was all just some ponies coming down here and digging?" Dash asked. "And they weren't even smart enough to mine where they'd actually get something out of it? Man, what a bunch of dipsticks..."

"I wouldn't say that just yet, sweetheart." I countered. "Nopony goes to all this work unless they're damned sure they're gonna get something out of it. What it is remains to be seen though."

Back in the shack, I sat at the table, looking over the blueprint of the mine. There had to be a reason why somepony would be mining in that shaft. I took a pencil, and added the new excavation to the map, then drew a line from the end of the shaft outwards. After nearly eight hundred yards, it would intersect with a tunnel where the miners had been working a rich vein of quartz. I turned my attention to the side shaft where the unexplained explosion had taken place. It ran away from the main shaft at an angle, and if continued on in a straight line, would just skirt the edge of the projected quartz deposit, which was defined by a shaded area on the map. Why were they targeting the areas where there was little quartz? Was it because they were off the beaten track, and the trespassers believed that they would go unnoticed? I rolled up the map, and sat it on the table before standing and turning to my marefriend and my sister, who were sitting on one of the bottom bunks, Dashie reading, and Budder drawing something in her sketch book.

"Let's get some sleep." I said wearily. Got another big day tomorrow." Budder slid her sketch book and pencil under the bed, and climbed into the top bunk. I blew out the lanterns, and got into the bottom bed with Dashie. My marefriend put a foreleg around me and snuggled up to me lovingly. We lay there for a moment in the quiet darkness of the cabin.

"Did you ever solve any big crimes when you were out here?" Budder's voice asked from the top bunk. "Back when you were in the cavalry?"

"Hm. Big crimes, no. Back then, I was too busy running a fort and trying to keep down trouble in the area." I answered. "I was always a good tracker." I added. "I'm not trying to brag about that...but I could follow signs as good as any Buffalo Scout."

"I believe it." My sister stated. There was a pause, and I lay on the mattress, feeling Dash's left foreleg around me. "Did the soldiers under you...did they like you?" Budder queried. "I bet they thought you were awesome."

"Not at first..." I confessed. "They didn't trust me when I first came out here. Their last commander was a raving lunatic that yelled at them all the time. I guess they thought I'd be the same way. Heheh...I remember...one of them even wrote 'Bend over, here it comes again' on the door of my quarters. I almost got into a brawl with one of them during inspection. I guess I proved myself to them though. The walls of that fort were coated with the lingering curses of my name the first couple of weeks. Within a year, they wanted to have me promoted."

"Heehee...sounds legit." Dashie quipped.

"I knew they thought you were awesome..." Budder said. I heard her yawn. "'Cause you are, bubby."

"You guys are too." I returned with a smile.

"Nahhh...we're only assistant awesome." Budder said sleepily. "Love you bub."

"Love you too, angel." I replied. "Good night sis."

"Good night bub." My sister said. "Good night Dashie."

"Good night Budder." Dash yawned. "Good night, Drake."

"G'night, Dash." I said back.

"Night guys." Budder said.

"Um..." I muttered.

"Night kid." Dash stated. Oh no...we aren't doing this thing again...

"Good night guys..." Dashie began, and I could hear the laugh she was holding back.

"NO! This ain't the Walltons! I breathed. "Shut up and go to sleep...now. Oh, and I love you guys." Dashie and Budder giggled.

"Love you too." They both said. I wallowed into the mattress and fell fast asleep.

I will make every attempt to get chapter six up late tonight. I should be able to do so. I hope everypony out there is enjoying this Volume so far. Until next chapter, I want to thank all of you for reading.

CHAPTER 6

Hey everypony! I'm back again with yet another chapter. This makes three chapters in 24 hours. I would love to be able to do this every day. I hope you are all enjoying my sudden burst of artistic ambition, as well as the story. I wonder if any of you have figured out the answer to the enigma of this case yet. It looks like the plot keeps thickening, eh? Well read on, and don't forget to shoot me questions and comments, my loyal readers. I won't keep you any longer. Here is chapter 6. Enjoy!

"Alright Budder..." I said, walking with my sister to the mouth of the mine. "I'm going to go over the map, and read some more boring books about geology and mineral deposits and junk. I don't know jack-turkey about quartz mining...or any kind of mining...but something tells me that I'm gonna have to do my homework if I'm gonna solve this thing." She nodded. "Meanwhile...you brought that electro-spectro-detectro thing-a-ma-bob, didn't you?" My sister gave me a lemon-sour face a moment.

"UGH!" She exclaimed, planting her face in her right hoof. "Electromagnetic Field Detector, bub...okay? Just...please...and yes, I brought it."

"Whatever...okay, while I'm working on the criminal angle, you can see if you can't use your Electromagnetic Field Detector to...detect electric ghosts or...ugh...okay sis, you know this ain't my thing. Just do what you do best, angel." I rolled my eyes.

Heeheehee." She giggled. "Alright bub. And you can do what you do best." She went into the shack and came out wearing her saddlebags, and carrying a strange-looking device that she had obtained to hunt ghosts with. I say obtained because I'm not entirely sure where she had gotten it. I know that she had drawn a few crude sketches of a hoof-held ghost-finding machine, and then made me give her 500 bits of the money she'd made helping out on our cases. The next thing I knew, it was one month later, and who should show up but Princess Luna. She had a large box for my sister, and inside was the contraption and a few books written by Princess Luna herself called "Electricity Energy and the Paranormal" and "Magnetism and the Macabre", and my favorite title "Zapping Ghosts from your Home with the Power of Lightning?"

The device was a black-stained wooden box, measuring four inches wide, seven long, and two inches deep. It was a heavily modified version of a radiation detector, and had a display on which were numbers and a needle, and the odd words 'Gauss/Milligauss', below which was 1.0/0.1, and the words 'BonumNocte Labs'. It turned on and off via a switch on the side of the box. There was a small pocket compass set into the face of the box as well, and the whole thing ran off of magically-charged batteries that Budder got shipped regularly from Canterlot. My sister had let me play with her strange device for a while after she had gotten it, and I couldn't make heads or tails out of it. It started buzzing, and the needle moved around kitchen magnets, and she showed me how the needle would spike, and the box would chirp loudly every time lightning would flash during a storm. She explained to me that ghosts were made of the same thing that caused magnets to attract metal, and the same thing that made up lightning, but they were two different forces, but the same thing. Then she went on about how unicorn magic and ghosts were similar because they were both energy particles that could move things around in the real world.

I'd listened for a while, and some of it actually made sense, but I had to stop her when she started talking about floating consciousnesses and electrons, protons and ions building up in haunted places. It was beyond the scope of what I knew about reality, and really beyond what I wanted to know in a way. I was still very impressed with Budder, and how much knowledge she had acquired on the paranormal. It was more than obvious to me that we were both detectives now, in our own ways albeit, and where I was continually searching for physical clues, my sister's technique was a little more esoteric in nature. This was her calling, her life's work, and I would support her in it fully.

"Don't forget a hardhat when you go in there." I cautioned. "And a lantern. Oh, take a whistle too, so if you get lost, I can find you, okay?"

"Okay, bub." Budder answered.

"You might wanna take some first aid stuff with you too, just in case."

"Bubby, I'll be fine." She stated. "You worry too much about me. I'll be alright...as long as I don't run into spiders." She added, then shivered.

"You sure? I know Dashie probably wouldn't mind..."

"Drake, I'll be alright, okay?" My sister said, trying to defuse my concerns.

"I guess..." I mumbled. "You know I worry about you..."

"I know. It's because you love me." She said with a smile.

"Yeah. That's exactly right. Be careful sis, okay?" I repeated. "And...if you see any ghosts, let me know...not that I'll be thrilled to hear about it."

"Heh. Alright." Budder nodded. She pulled on a hardhat. "I'll be back in a little bit, bub. Love you." She checked her device and put it into her right saddlebag, then took the lantern sitting beside us in her teeth. I watched my sister trot off into the mine. I turned back to the shed, and the boring books I had to go over. I couldn't help but feel that at this point of the case, my little sister had gotten the better end of the deal.

There is only so much about quartz a stallion can learn without going completely insane. I know this because I feel like I nearly reached that point. I had brought a book on mining, and two on minerals, and had requested some literature about quartz and quartz mining from Carbide Bit. Now, after three hours of pouring over the information, I was still no closer to piecing together a picture of what was going on in this mystery. What I did know was that quartz was a naturally occurring silica-oxygen tetrahedral crystal with a chemical formula of SiO2. I knew that it was the second most abundant mineral in nature, and is formed by crystalizing molten magma and geothermic activity. I knew now that it formed in conjunction with other ore materials like iron, gold, silver and copper. I found that it can be created by lightning striking sand. Hell, at this point I even knew that it was possible to synthesize quartz in a laboratory setting. All this I knew, and I didn't know if any of it had anything to do with the problem at hoof.

And what's more, I found out that quartz mining can be profitable, but that is a relative term. According to my calculations, this mine was turning out about three million bits a year in quartz crystal. After paying the miners to extract the rock, transportation, and what I considered to be normal operating costs for the mine and the company, the owner couldn't be clearing more than three hundred grand a year. Hardly an amount worth all the trouble the criminals were going to in their endeavor to run everypony off. If there were just three ponies involved in this mess, and they managed to seize control of this operation, they'd only stand to make a hundred thousand a year each off their efforts, and that would be if the mine were being worked around the clock. Operating at a normal pace, they'd only be making a little more than a forepony every year. Something wasn't adding up about all of this.

Another angle then...what if it was a criminal ring, looking to set up shop in an abandoned mine? With only one way in and out, and everypony scared to go around the place, it would be a good location for a hideout. But that's about it. A hideout. A set of tracks ran from the mine to the small town, four miles away. There, it connected onto the main line at a switching station designed to shuttle the cars coming from the local mines around the area around and send them out on trains headed east. Those tracks and a rutted out dirt road were the only ways to get here, and the small town was the only population center for dozens of miles. If the criminal ring were engaged in smuggling or an other activities badponies like to dip their hooves in, they could have picked someplace less secluded, and with easier accessibility. Okay, so they're not using the mine as a smuggler's cove. Then what? A secret headquarters for a sinister international cadre of assassins bent on world domination? That made about as much sense as anything else at this point.

"Any luck, sweetie?" Dashie asked, bringing me a cup of fresh coffee. I picked up the tin cup and held it up in a toast to my marefriend for loving me so deeply as to bring me caffeine.

"Not yet." I admitted. "The more I learn, the less sense this whole thing makes." I took a drink of the coffee. "To be honest, there's no good reason for anypony to want this damned mine. None at all."

"You sure?" Dash asked.

"Well, it's got quartz, but nopony's gonna get rich off of a quartz mine. Other than that, it's just a big damned hole in the ground in the middle of the desert. Who in their right mind would want this place bad enough to go to all this trouble to get it?" I said, exasperated. "Usually, I have a little trouble figuring out who did it...or even how they did it. This time...I can't even figure out why they did it..."

"What if it really is ghosts?" Rainbow Dash asked, plopping down on the bottom bunk with a book. "Like, you know...maybe there's really some ponies sneakin' in and mining, trying to steal a little quartz on the side, and that's totally a thing...but like, there's really ghosts and junk too."

"Huh." I scoffed. "I never thought about that. It would make sense. Maybe Budder will turn up something paranormal in there, and we can finally put it all together." I took another drink of coffee.

"She still in there?" Dashie asked. I slid the pocket watch across the table and opened it.

"Yeah." I answered. I looked out the window at the entrance to the mine. "It's been over two hours. She should have been back by now..." I took yet another sip of coffee. "Alright. I'm worried. Let's go."

And so ends chapter six. It appears that things aren't quite what they seem with this case. And Budder has gone missing. That can never bode well. Is she okay? What will happen next? Is the mine by horror haunted, or is it a case of common calculated criminals? Stay tuned to find out. I will make every attempt to get the next chapter up tomorrow evening. Until then, thanks for reading, everypony!

CHAPTER 7

Hey everypony. Sorry for the delay. This chapter kicked my butt for three days. Writing in multiple POV's is hard enough for me. On top of that fact, I've been all kinds of busy, and I have had a splitting headache all day today. But, me being awesome like I am, I finally gritted through it, and got it written. Never content to just write a bunch of rubbish and try to pass it off as a chapter, I wanted it to be pure gold. Well...it may not be gold, but it's at least silver. Or maybe bronze? Graphite? Manganese maybe...ugh...mining stories. Heheh. Well, I hope you all like this chapter. Please review everypony.

Budder's POV, Taken from her autobiography

I wandered the mine for the better part of an hour, using my electromagnetic field detector to search for signs of spirit activity. I had a few small hits so far, but nothing to show there was a major haunting going on in the mine. Usually, if there's a really strong spirit, or even a bunch of weaker ones, they make an electrical field in the area that devices like mine can pick up on, and usually those electrical fields are pretty strong. In the mine I was in, it was a pretty weak, constant field. I started wondering if my brother was right, and it was just criminals after all. I took a turn, going down a tunnel that led to the left, away from the main shaft. I had to squeeze through some boards that had the new tunnel closed off from the main part of the mine. Here, I started getting a slightly stronger signal. I didn't know if it was because of the rocks and minerals in the cave, or something else though.

I kept going, and got to a point where it looked like somepony had been building onto the mine. The walls weren't as flat, and the wooden beams holding up the roof were all new. There were piles of rocks and dirt everywhere. Something about this was suspicious, and I slipped the emf detector back into my saddlebag and concentrated on looking around at the mine. I didn't have any idea how they had managed to do this much work in here. It looked like they had taken the original mine shaft, and dug it at least fifty yards deeper. I walked to the end of the new mine shaft, and saw a huge pile of rubble layered against the wall, just like in the tunnel I had been in with my brother and Rainbow Dash. Nearby were two more large piles of rock., just like in the other shaft too.

"What the heck are you up to?" I whispered to myself. Something suddenly donned on me. I went to the closest pile of rock and started digging through it. Sure enough, buried in the small stones and rock dust was a pick and a shovel. "Uh-huhhhh..." I said.

Suddenly, I heard somepony coming, and hid behind one of the piles of rocks, and blew out my lantern. For all I knew, it could be Drake or Dash, it could be a ghost, or it could be an axe murderer. The crunching sound of hooves on the rocks and dust on the floor of the mine kept getting closer, and I started to see the glow of another lantern coming from down the shaft. Then, I saw the shadows of two ponies on the wall of the mine. They passed by me, and I could hear them talking.

"We're getting' a haul out of this shaft." One of them said. "We need to move on though. Nopony's working down here anymore. Why can't we work a better vein?"

"We will, don't worry." The other stallion replied. "A little more time to make sure this place is really abandoned, and we'll be digging out the real mother-load!" So there were the ponies who had been doing all of this. I knew I had to make it out of here and get my brother. Then, it would be easy enough to watch him beat them black and blue, and arrest them. The problem was how to get out of the mine without them seeing me.

I stayed low, and quietly crawled along behind the pile of rock. I saw an opportunity, and slid along to the next big pile, staying in the shadows. I heard the two stallions still talking about mining more ore out tonight before moving on to another shaft. Then, I heard the first one say something that was very bad for my little spying operation.

"Hey, get the lamps lit in here so we can get to work." He called. The second bad pony passed by me, only a yard away, and walked back the way they had come. Now I was trapped between the two criminals, and in a few minutes, the lights were going to go on, revealing me to them. I made my way back along the mine as far as I could, but stopped when I saw a lantern light up the tunnel about twenty yards away. A few seconds later, another was lit. I backed closer tot he wall, and was close to freaking out. I slid over a few more inches, looking for someplace to hide, thinking seriously about trying to bury myself in the dirt. Then, I felt a cool breeze of air. Looking behind me, I realized there was a hole in the wall, just large enough for a pony to fit through. Another lamp was lit, and I was running out of time. I pulled myself into the hole, and started crawling. I could feel that I was headed up at an angle, and the fresh air, and the small dot of light at the end of the hole told me that it led to the outside. That was good enough for me.

After some time, I made it to the end of the tunnel, and out into the bright light. After my eyes adjusted from the darkness, I found myself standing on a narrow dirt path on a hillside. I couldn't see the mine entrance or the buildings, and didn't know which way to go. Below was what looked like an open pit or something. From the hole I'd just crawled through, I heard a crackling noise, like somepony was coming up the shaft. I panicked, and started running.

I slid down the embankment. I had to get back to my brother and Dashie and tell them about the criminals in the mine. I got to the bottom of the pit, and started to gallop across, but the ground was soft, like a wet sponge. I couldn't believe it. The surface was dry, but underneath was thick mud. I had somehow ran into mud out here in the driest place I'd ever seen! Each step I took was harder and harder, and I felt myself sinking deeper and deeper into the ground the further I went.

"Ugh...no...no...not now..." I muttered, trying to walk across the soft ground, my hooves starting to sink deeper with each step. Finally, when I tried to move, I found myself stuck. My struggling only sank me deeper, until I was up to my chest and cemented into the muck.

I was afraid to scream for help. I knew that if I did, I might get my brother's attention, but I also might end up getting caught by the badponies. I knew Drake and Dashie would come looking for me soon. If I didn't make it back to the cabin in an hour or so, Drake would start getting worried. If there was one thing I could count on, it was that my brother would worry about me. I still had to stay stuck in this mud for who knows how long until they found me.

There I waited, stuck in the bog for I don't know how long. It was miserable. I had to have been there for two hours. I sang all of my favorite songs to myself, and mentally read myself parts of my favorite books. I ran out of things to do, and started counting things, like the large rocks on the edge of the mud pit. There were fifty six. I know because I counted them seven times. I started to get scared that I was going to actually die in the mine pond, when I finally heard somepony yelling for me.

"Budder?!" I heard a familiar voice call.

"Drake?!" I called back. "Bubby?!"

"Sis, where are you?!" Drake's voice implored.

"I'm down here...I'm stuck!" I yelled back.

"What? Where?!"

"Down here in...in this pond or whatever! I can't get out!" I saw my brother look down from the top of the hill.

"Sis...how the Hell'd you keep ending up in quicksand?!" He asked, probably as confused as I was at how I kept managing to find the one pit of mud in any area. My brother started carefully climbing down the slope toward me.

"I don't freakin' know...but I had to run from a couple of ponies that were in the mine. I think they were the ones who've been sneaking in and mining and stuff. I ran into this crap, and I can't get out..." Drake stopped a second and looked at me.

"Sounds about right..." He said. "I guess it's a good thing I brought the rope." He took off his saddlebags and pulled out a length of thick rope. "Seeing as I should have known you would find yourself in just such a predicament..."

"Oh shut up." I shot back. "I hate getting stuck! It's annoying!" I almost felt like pouting.

"Heheh..." My brother laughed. "Alright sis...here, grab the rope." He threw the rope out to me, and I took it in my teeth. After a few minutes of struggling and cussing Drake let me get away with, I was on solid ground again. He looked me up and down, and I realized that most of my body was caked in mud. "Leave it to you Budder...to go into the desert and find the one puddle of muck...ugh. You're a mess." All I could do was growl in irritation. "So what were you saying about finding the perps?"

"Okay, there were two of them, both stallions. I was in the mine tunnel where the explosion happened, and I heard them coming. I hid so they wouldn't see me, but they were between me and the way out. Then I found a little tunnel or something. I guess that's how they got in. When I made it outside, I didn't know where I was. I thought I heard them coming, and tried to hide in this stupid hole, and got sucked in. And...well...you found me. So yeah..."

End Budder's POV

"Did you say that they came in through a smaller shaft?" I asked. "Like an air shaft?"

"I guess." Budder answered. "It was smaller than the big tunnel, and it went up to the surface..."

"That would be an air shaft." I deduced. "But Carbide Bit said that nopony could fit through those things. They must have made it big enough to get through. Explains how they were able to get in and out of the mine unnoticed."

"They have tools hidden down there too." My sister added. "In piles of dirt and rock."

"Which tunnel were you in?" I asked.

"Um...I dunno. It branched off from the main one a long ways into the mine. It went kind of...left? Oh, and it was boarded up." I went over the layout of the mine in my mind.

"That was the tunnel where the explosion happened..." I stated.

"Really?" Budder asked. "It looked like they'd cleared it all up, and had the ceiling braced up, and were mining down there."

"Uh huh..." I muttered. "This whole thing still has me confused, but I think I may have another theory about what's going on in this mine. Something stood out from all of those books I was going over, and I have a good idea why this mine may be so important to these ponies."

"Why?" Budder questioned.

"Nevermind just yet." I answered. "It's still just a theory anyway."

"So what do we do?" Budder asked, trying fruitlessly to wipe off some of the muck from the slurry pond. I thought for a moment.

"Hm. I think we ought to catch them in the act, and give them a dose of their own medicine." I said.

"Whatchu mean?" My sister questioned.

"Heh. You know all about ghosts, right? I mean how they act and stuff?"

"I guess..."

"Well, since these idiots like to play ghostie, why don't we fight fire with fire?" I said, and chuckled diabolically. Budder looked at me a moment in confusion, then realized what I was getting at, and gave me a big grin.

"Cool!" She exclaimed. "Let's get Dashie and scare the crap outta those guys!"

"Couldn't have phrased it better myself." I agreed.

Well now they know have a plan. Are they gonna catch the bad ponies soon, or will the case take another dramatic turn? And what exactly is Drake planning anyway? I'll try to have the next chapter up tomorrow...unless something else rises up like a leviathan and eats my precious writing time. So until next chapter, thanks for reading, everypony!

CHAPTER 8

I'm back, everypony! And I come bearing the gift of another chapter. I'm sure you will all like this one. I do realize that this story is a bit shorter than some of the other cases Drake and crew have worked on, but not all of their adventures will be twenty and thirty chapter fics. This one is unique as well, in that the case itself is only part of the entire plot, if you've followed so far. In a way, it's easier for Drake to solve a baffling criminal case than it is for him to come to terms with certain elements of his own past. Being in the old frontier somewhat forces him to face down some of those demons that he's carried with him since the events of Volume 2. So with that said, I'll let you get to the story now. Do enjoy, and please review

The three of us crept into the mine after nightfall, but we didn't go with empty hooves. Besides my saber, I also carried a pick, as did Dashie. Budder on the other hoof was wearing a white bedsheet from one of the bunks, with a mining helmet on her head. In her mouth, she held the lantern we had created. We had found a red glass bottle, from which I had broken off the bottom, and rigged it to one of the lanterns. Now, the lamp gave off a creepy red glow that made my sister's costume even more macabre. Now prepared to catch the criminals, we put my plan into motion. We had already closed off the air vent, plugging the hole in the wall that the rats were using to get in and out. This left them only one exit, and that was the idea.

"Sis, you wait here with the red lantern." I explained. "Me and Dashie are gonna scare the wits out of those wannabe ghosts. When they come through here, trying to get out of the mine, do your best impression of a big spooky ghost, and chase them back our way. By the time they get to me, they'll be too mortified to put up a fight, and we'll arrest 'em, and get this thing over with already. Sound good?" My sister pulled the sheet up off of her head and looked at me a moment.

"Mortified?" She asked. "What does that mean?"

"Ugh. Scared." I simplified the plan for her. "Just be...scary...you know, like how you always are."

"Heehee. Gotcha." Budder grinned evilly.

"And be careful, okay?" I added. She smiled.

"I'll be okay bub. I gotta be. For you."

"Love you, sis." I said, and kissed her on the forehead.

"Love you too bubby." She smiled. "You guys be careful too."

"Oh, we don't have to be careful..." I grinned. "We're ghooOOoooosssts. OOOoooOOO..."

Dash and I turned our oil lanterns down low, and walked deep into the mine, until we came to the passage that led off of the main tunnel. I paused and perked up my ears. Sure enough, I could hear the criminals still working away far off in the shaft. Fortunately, they were still unaware that they weren't alone on the jobsite. I nodded to Dashie, and my marefriend nodded back. The illegal miners were about to get what was coming to them. In spades.

I took my position about fifteen yards beyond the tunnel where the criminals were working, blissfully unaware of what was about to befall them. Dashie and I shared our traditional good luck kiss before my marefiend moved on, about fifty yards down the shaft. The mine was a perfect conduit for carrying sound, and from where I was, I could hear the faint sound of a pick, and the abrasive tell of a shovel working in the side tunnel. I waved my lantern, and a few seconds later, I saw Dash's go out. I then flipped up the globe of my own light, and blew out the flame. We needed to work in absolute darkness, and without the lanterns, I found myself in a darkness I had never known before. I had to feel for the wall, and pat around on the ground for my pick. I found the instrument, and got myself ready for the most creative ruse I had ever used in case.

I took a deep breath, ready to set our conspiracy into motion. I swung the pick, striking the wall repeatedly, sending off a sharp 'clink...clink...clink' that echoed through the tunnels. After a few seconds, I paused. That was my signal. After a moment of silence, I heard Dashie start with her pick. The sound of the metal point of the tool against the stone wall reverberated through the mine. The sound of work in the tunnel stopped, and so did we. We waited for a few minutes, and the two ponies resumed their excavation, probably after convincing themselves their ears had been playing tricks on them. Again, I started hitting the stone wall of the tunnel with my pick. The sound of the working stopped again. Now, the criminals were bound to be sure that they had heard somepony else down here. I stopped and waited. From far down in the shaft, Dashie hit the wall four times with her pick and stopped. Alright. Now, we just had to wait.

Sure enough, after a few minutes, I heard voices coming from the side shaft. The two culprits had gotten spooked, and tried to make good their getaway, but had found their little escape tunnel blocked, and were coming our way, just as planned. I backed away further into the main tunnel, well beyond the scope of their lanterns, and into position for stage two of my plan. I finally heard them enter the main mine shaft, and saw the soft glow of their lanterns from the distance.

"I told you to shore up that tunnel." One of them said.

"I did, I swear!" The other one argued. "I dunno what could've happened."

"Well shut up and come on. I'm telling you I heard somepony down here. We got some ore out tonight, and that'll have to do." The first one stated. Now was the time for Dashie to play her part.

"OOOooooooOOOOOoOoOOooo." A ghastly moan sounded from far back in the mine.

"What was that?! You hear that?" The second pony called out.

"Yeah...I told you somepony else was down here." His companion replied. I saw the dancing of the light on the walls of the mine as the two stallions looked around. My turn.

"DiiIIIiiIIIiiiieEEEEeeeeeee..." I growled.

"Who said that?!" The first stallion called. "Who's down here?! This is private property!"

"WaaaaooooOOOOooooooo..." Rainbow Dash moaned in the blackness. I then heard her pick strike the wall several times. Nice touch, sweetheart.

"It's ghosts...it's ghosts Brick! We gotta get out of here!"

"W...we only m...made up all that ghosts stuff, remember?" The first one stammered.

"Let's go...we...we'll come back later..."

"Yeah, alright..." I heard the first one say nervously. As they started for the entrance, I hit the wall twice with my pick, paused, and then hit it twice again, the signal for my marefriend to move up. A few seconds later, she was standing next to me in the darkness. I nudged her, a signal for us to follow. We silently pursued the culprits, closing the gap between us, but still staying in the darkness, out of reach of the light of their lanterns. It was my sister's turn now, and I knew she would not disappoint.

Budder's POV, Taken from her autobiography

I heard all the noise my brother and Dash were making, and I knew they had to be scaring the heck out of the criminals. I also knew that it wouldn't be long before it was up to me to really put some fear into the two fake ghosts that were scaring everypony away from the mine. I lit the small carbide lamp on my mining helmet, and turned the flame down low. A few minutes later, I heard two voices coming my way. I adjusted my ghost costume, and took the red lantern in my hoof. Ready to be an evil ghost, I started down into the mine.

"Come on, I'm not messin around with no ghosts!" I heard somepony say.

"I'm telling you, it ain't ghosts..." Another voice said. "There ain't no ghosts...I mean...is there?" At that moment, the two stallions came around a bend in the mine, and there I was, standing there like a ghoul, the red light from my lantern making me look even scarier.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I screamed, and ran at the two stallions. For the first time in my life, I heard a grown stallion scream like a filly. They both almost fell over, and started running for their lives, screaming with every breath.

End Budder's POV

I heard the terrified screams of the criminals ahead, and knew that my sister had done her job well. The pair of panicked ponies were coming my way, and Dash and I pressed ourselves up against the walls on each side of the mine. We didn't have to lie in wait for our quarry long. As soon as the two came barreling toward us, we jumped out in front of them, I with my sword drawn, Dashie holding up a lantern turned up brightly.

"STOP!" I yelled. The two stallions cried out and halted so abruptly that they actually tripped over one another, and fell flat on the floor of the mine. They lay there, terror-stricken for a few moments, then one of them finally looked up at me and Dash. He narrowed his eyes.

"Wha...you ain't no ghost." He said.

"Nope. I'm a detective." I answered. "And you're both under arrest."

"Yeah, sure...whatever..." The criminal replied. "Just get me the hell out of this mine. It's haunted!"

"Come on now, you two don't believe in ghosts, do you?" I asked mockingly. I nudged Dashie, and she snickered.

"Yeah, laugh it up lawdog. We just got chased by a damned ghost!"

"Hey, I take offense to that." I remarked. "That damned ghost is my sister."

"What..."

"Hey sis, come on out!" I called.

"Boo!" Budder exclaimed, popping out from behind a timber, the sheet wrapped around her shoulders like a cloak, and a big grin on her face.

"Aw damnit..." The more talkative criminal growled. "We done got hoorahed by a couple of cops and a little filly in a bedsheet!"

So ends chapter 8. This had to be the most out-of-the-box strategy Drake has ever used to catch a criminal yet. What did you all think? We still don't know why the two stallions were scaring everypony off though. Much will be revealed soon, I promise. I will try to have the next chapter up late tonight or early tomorrow afternoon. Depends on how long the energy drinks hold out. Heheh. Until next chapter, please review, and thanks for reading everypony!

CHAPTER 9

Hey everypony, I'm finally back with chapter 9. As usual, I didn't get any writing done over the weekend. I had Budder, and we were busy talking to producers and stuff, trying to get in on some movies. Normal family stuff, ya know? Hopefully if things work out, I'll get to play a cop, and she'll be a random victim. But I digress. After this chapter, we can wrap this mystery up in a nice little bow and toss it in the 'solved' bin. Still confused as to exactly why the ponies were going to all of that trouble just for a little quartz? If you are, don't feel bad. Only someone who knows geology would be able to figure it out. So let's get on with it. I hope you like the chapter. Please review.

"Alright guys..." I began, "...while we're waiting on the Marshall to show up, why don't we start at the beginning. I have a few theories I need to indulge." The two perps stood before me, with Rainbow Dash, Budder and Carbide Bit keeping them from escaping, not that they were trying very hard to do so.

"We're already had..." The leader of the two replied. "Might as well come clean." He sighed. "Me and Gravel here used to work for the mine. We figured we'd make more if we went into business for ourselves. So we snuck in and started mining out quartz on our own. The ghost thing was just to throw everypony off."

"Hm." I mused. "Brick was it?" The dark red stallion nodded. "Good story, but it's about as true as your ghosts, right?" The criminal glowered at me. "I mean, mining a little quartz out every night is supposed to earn you two a living? Why don't you tell us about the gold?" At that, both of the stallions locked eyes with me in surprise, and Carbide Bit had a look of shock on his face.

"I...we don't know what you're talkin' about!" Brick exclaimed.

"I'm sure you don't." I grinned. "And I wouldn't have either if I hadn't been reading up on the intricacies of quartz mining. Turns out, quartz is rarely found alone in nature. Where you find quartz, you're bound to find ore minerals like iron, copper, or gold. Right Carbide?"

"That's right." The forepony agreed. "Alot of the iron and copper mines use quartz as an indicator for what they're looking for."

"And I'm sure you two knew that too." I said to the pair of malefactors. "And so you dug around, looking for something a little more valuable than a bunch of clear rocks, right? And then you hit a vein of gold, and figured that it was time to get out of the quartz mining business, and into the real money. You two concocted the whole ghost routine to scare all the miners away. Then when the mine closed down, you were going to buy it with the gold you'd already extracted, and you two were gonna get rich. Am I leaving anything out?"

"Yeah, that I've been a miner for 10 years, and I got nothin' to show for it but calluses and a sore back." Brick grumbled. "I was finally gonna have the good life. A big house, a hot tub, and fillies hangin all over me. You know, what I deserved for all that hard work."

"You said you worked for the mine?" Carbide Bit asked.

"Yeah. We both did." Brick answered. The gray stallion beside him nodded.

"How much were you making an hour? Twelve bits?" Carbide questioned.

"Yeah."

Well you know if we'd found the gold and started pulling it out, you two...and the rest of the miners would have been paid twenty an hour, right?" The forepony stated. "All you had to do was be honest."

"Damn it..." Brick muttered. "We messed up..."

"Yes you did." I said. "And you realize that you two can be charged with grand theft, conspiracy to commit theft and land fraud, criminal trespass, and a bunch of minor charges I don't feel like getting into."

"And impersonating a ghost." My sister added.

"You'll be looking at about fifteen years each." The two criminals looked at the ground. "Unless..." At that, they glanced back up at me questioningly. "Carbide?"

"Well..." Carbide Bit sighed. "I kinda see where you two were coming from. Even though what you did was wrong, and could have put this whole mine out of business, I'll do you two a favor...how about I don't charge you with grand theft? Just fess up to the lesser charges, take your medicine, and maybe you won't have to spend but a couple of years in jail?"

"You...you'd do that?" Gravel asked meekly.

"Yeah...why not..." Carbide answered. "You two willing to serve your time and make amends for what you did?"

"Ugh...yessir..." Brick said.

"Yeah..." Gravel added.

"I'm just wondering..." Brick began, looking back at me. "How did you find out about the gold?"

"Well...it's a quartz mine." I stated. "And one of the largest, so everypony just assumed that all this had something to do with the quartz. Even I did at first. But then, when I found out that quartz is worth more intrinsically than monetarily, I started to suspect there was more to this than appeared on the surface. So, like a miner, I dug deeper. After learning more about quartz and geology than I ever care to remember, I found out that quartz is usually found near metals, especially gold. Common sense told me that the ponies involved weren't after iron or copper, or anything like that. It would be easier for you to go digging through a garbage dump for metal cans for recycling than to extract ore...anyway, long story short..."

"Too late for that..." Dashie muttered. I shot her a glower, and she grinned innocently.

"It was simple process of elimination. You were already down here taking something from the ground, even when there were still miners working, which meant whatever you were after was worth enough in small quantities to make it worth your while, and worth getting' caught for. If you'd managed to scare off all the miners with your bad acting, you would have had to work the mine alone. Two or three ponies can't pull enough of anything out of the ground to be profitable except for gold or silver. Given that the very idea of a vein of gold is enough to make most ponies start drooling, I just figured it was gold."

"Wow." Carbide Bit said, taken aback. "Princess Luna was right about you. You have to be the best detective I've ever heard of."

"Well, it wasn't all me." I replied. "My sister is the one who caught these two in the act. I may be able to find clues, but I can always count on Budder to stumble into trouble at just the right time."

"Heheheh...yeeeaahhhhh..." My sister sighed sheepishly.

"But what about the explosion?" Carbide asked.

"Simple." I answered. "They were blasting out a deeper mine. Figured that out when I noticed the small drill holes in the wall of one shaft where they had packed in the explosives. My sister saw that the debris had been cleaned up in the mine tunnel where you reported the explosion, and the ceiling had been braced up. It was obvious they'd been down there doing some major excavation. Oh, and here comes the marshal." A stagecoach was approaching, pulled by two stallions wearing cowpony hats, with silver stars pinned to their vests.

"I guess our work here is done." I stated. I walked some distance away with Dash and Budder as the Marshal and the forepony took care of the business of charging and arresting the criminals. "Well, at least the case is. We still ain't finished out here yet, though."

"What do you mean?" Dashie asked. I looked into my marefriend's eyes, then into my sister's before turning my gaze out into the barren frontier. "There's something I want to show you two while we're out here."

So ends chapter 9 and the case. Not a bad little mystery, eh? What's going to happen now when Drake confronts his past? And what is it he wants to show his family? I will probably have the next chapter or two up soon, so don't worry. I won't keep you waiting too long to find out. So until next chapter, thanks for reading, everypony!

CHAPTER 10

Hey everypony. As promised, I have returned with chapter 10 in a timely fashion. Now with the case over, the remaining portion of this volume changes pace as Drake returns to Fort Mesquite to confront his past. All of you who have followed Drake's journey from the beginning know what our detective has been through since that fateful day on the frontier, and you have all probably been waiting for this day to come. Well, the moment is finally here, and I hope I didn't disappoint. Please review, loyal readers.

We stood at the gate I had last walked out of over three years before. It was surreal. Fort Mesquite hadn't changed at all since I had seen it last. The walls, the blockhouses and towers, even the old sutler cabin sitting on the small rise near the fort was the same. The wooden gate had been repaired, and the fort had been used for a year or so after I had left. Memories came rushing back, all the good ones and all the bad ones at once. I had spent almost a third of my life so far at this place, and now here it sat...abandoned, derelict, a wooden monument to a great war jutting up out of the broken desert landscape as a reminder to all.

"You okay, Drake?" Dashie asked.

"I think...I think I've always needed to do this." I finally answered. "For myself, you know?"

"Yeah." My marefriend nodded. With my family watching me, I stepped forward and pushed open the gates. With that, a thousand memories came rushing out.

"Those were the barracks. That's where all the soldiers lived and slept when they weren't on duty." I said, pointing the long, low structure built onto the inside wall of the fort. And over there...that was the blacksmith's shed." I looked out over the courtyard in the middle of the fort. "This big open area is called the parade ground. It's where we drilled and did inspection. Heh. It's also where we had our snowball war one winter. Over there, by that little building is where we planted out garden..."

"What's that house?" My sister asked, pointing toward my old dwelling. I smiled warmly at Budder and leaned my head against hers.

"Glad you asked, angel." I said softly. "That's where I lived. That's the officer's quarters, and that was my home for eight years."

"Can we...go in, bub?" She asked. "I'd like to see where you lived, you know..."

"Yeah...we're going in." I nodded, staring at the door to the small house. "I spent almost a decade living in that cabin. I'm not coming all this way and missing the chance to see how...how it feels again."

"It?" Dashie asked. I gave her a small smile, and walked up to the door. I pushed it open and walked in, seeing the small office just the way I remembered it, only a little dustier. There was the same desk I had run the fort from. I slowly walked around the heavy wooden office desk, and there sat my old chair, that ugly padded wooden chair that probably still had my flank worn into it. I sat down in the chair, causing three years worth of dust to waft into the air. It felt different somehow, like wearing a crown when you weren't king, or a helmet when you weren't a soldier. I leaned forward and rested my elbows on the desk.

"You know, I sat at this desk almost every day for over eight years..." I commented. "This sure as Hell feels funny now..." As Dash and Budder watched without saying a word, I slid open the drawers one by one. They were all empty now of course. Like the rest of the fort, all of the supplies, equipment and paperwork had been removed from the fort. Still, I'd hoped to find some small memento to take with me. I had spent so long trying to forget this place, but all along I'd just needed to remember. It had taken until now for me to figure that out. I finally stood from the chair and walked over to the door on the side of the room. I slowly turned the knob, and pushed the door open.

"This room..." I whispered. The bed was still there, as were the bookshelves I and my troopers had built from rough lumber. I closed my eyes. "This was the room I stayed in my first night here at the fort. This was the room I had turned into a library so that everypony here could come and read whenever they wanted. It was..." I opened my eyes, and looked at Rainbow Dash, who was staring at me with a look of worry on her face. "It was her room..."

"It's okay..."

"Yeah..." I whispered. I slowly entered the bedroom. With what little light shone through the front door, I could see a couple of books still lying on the shelves, abandoned but preserved in the dry air after all these years. I walked over and picked up the largest one. It was a copy of 'Millstone's Military Poetry.' I sighed, holding the book in my hoof as if it were a holy relic for a few moments. "Here sis..." I said, reaching it to Budder. "Put this in your saddlebag. We're not leaving these books here to rot." She took the volume and stuck it in her saddlebag as I picked up the next book. It was a small paperback book called 'Big Gardening on a Small Lot'. It made me think of the crops we grew inside the fort. I handed the booklet to Budder and picked up the next. It was a murder-mystery called 'Flame in the Night'. I scoffed, and handing this one off as well.

"You know guys..." I began, "When I was out here, I started reading detective novels and books about crime detection. I started thinking about being a detective in this little house..." I looked around. "Now...here we are, I guess."

"That all the books, sweetie?" Dashie asked. I paused, struck by a memory.

"No...it's not." I answered gravely. "There's one more, and I'm gonna need your guys' help getting it if it's still there..."

I stood on my hind legs, the water nearly up to my neck, and prepared to go down again. I took a deep breath, and plunged myself into the cold water, feeling around on the bottom of the well for what I was searching for. Again, I didn't find it, and had to come back up for air.

"You okay bub?!" My sister called.

"Yeah.." I called back up, wiping my face. "Still didn't find it though."

"Are you sure it didn't like...disintegrate or something?" Dash questioned.

"No..." I stated. "It has to be down here...some...part or...piece at least...something..." With that, I dove down again, and started feeling around. Finally, my right forehoof hit upon something that didn't feel like a rock. I grabbed the object, and carefully lifted it from the slippery goo at the bottom of the well. "I got it!" I yelled up. I stepped into the bucket and grabbed the rope with my free hoof. "Alright, pull me up." With that, Dash and Budder began turning the winch on the well, and I began my ascent back to the surface.

Once out of the well, I sat down on the ground with the rectangular object from the well. I knew without even looking it over what it was, and I was unsure of how I felt about it. The book was waterlogged, and had swollen from sitting in water for so long. I very carefully opened the front cover to see a folded piece of paper tucked inside. I felt tears rising in my eyes.

"What is it, Drake?" Dash asked as she and Budder moved up beside me, and held me in their forelegs. "You gotta tell us. What's up with this book, and why did you throw it down the well?" I sniffed, and felt a tear roll down my cheek.

"This book..." I said, unsure of how exactly to explain. "It was Spring's favorite. That...that note there...it was something she wrote to me. I didn't find it until after she...I found it right after she died, and..." I closed the cover. "Damnit...I could've saved her if I knew...if she'd told me how she felt earlier. I needed to find this. I had to...for her...for all of them." I choked back a sob.

"It's okay, bubby..." Budder whispered soothingly. "Me and Dash are here. We love you."

"I know, angel..." I sighed. "We have to go out there now." I pointed outside the gates.

"You sure?" Dash asked.

"Yeah..." I nodded. I rubbed my nose and stood. "There's some ponies I want you two to meet."

We stood in the graveyard on the hill, a short distance from the fort. After the massacre, the cavalry had moved the bodies of my troopers back to the fort's graveyard, and given them a proper burial. Now, after three years, I finally stood amongst my command again. The twenty six wooden planks stood upright, as if they themselves were honor-bound soldiers, each standing guard over the lone grave of a fallen hero. I stood there at the entrance to the burial ground for several minutes, remembering each of the ponies interred there as they had been. I finally stepped forward.

"Hey guys..." I said in a low voice. I looked at the ground, feeling ashamed of myself for not knowing how to speak to these ponies I had shared so many memories with. I walked on a little, until I came to a grave in the center of the cemetery. I had put up that marker, and I had dug that grave. I felt Dash and Budder standing behind me. I cleared my throat. "Hey Spring..." I said to the grave in front of me. "It's...it's been a while, I guess." I was silent a moment. "I guess I should have come here sooner. I'm sure you'd probably kick my ass if you could for not visiting you." I felt tears falling down my face. I sat down beside the grave. "I uh...I'm a detective now. I know, right...who would have thought? This...this is my family. This is Rainbow Dash, my marefriend. You two would get along...or beat each other half to death, one or the other." I smiled amid my tears. "She's good to me. You don't have to worry about that. And um...this is my little sister, Budder. We're raising her, and she's a great foal...and fearless too. I don't think even you could scare her..." I sniffed, and leaned forward, placing a hoof on the grave. "I got your letter, Spring. I want you to know that. We're free now. Both of us. I'm happy now, and you should be too. We both got out of here. We're both free." I looked up to see Dashie standing on the other side of the grave, looking down. She had tears in her magenta eyes.

"I...I never got to meet you..." She said softly. "But thanks...thanks for taking care of Drake while he was out here. From uh...from what he says...I kinda get how you felt. I'll take care of him now...okay?"

"We both will." My sister squeaked, hugging me tightly as she looked at the grave. We sat there in silence until I spoke.

"I've never forgotten you." I finally whispered. "And I never will." I sniffed and stood up. I looked around at all of the markers. "I will never forget any of you." I said in a louder voice. "Many of you are the reason I became the stallion I am now, and I owe you. You were the best command an officer could ask for, and I owe you all for that too. Thank you, troopers. Thank you for everything. I'll...I'll try to come back and see you whenever I can. I promise you all that." I stood up straight and snapped a salute to the grave markers. "At ease, my brave troopers."

At that very moment, I could almost feel the two dozen troopers salute in return, and I could swear I could feel the eyes of Spring Shower looking down on me with love and happiness that I had finally escaped desperation and loneliness, and found a peaceful and wonderful life that we had both only dreamed of so long ago...

A long-awaited catharsis for Drake...I'm willing to bet that reading this chapter brought tears to more than a few eyes. I know, because I wept as I wrote this one. I hope that for all of you who have read Drake's story from the start, this has given you some measure of comfort, now knowing that Drake has finally been able to move on from his terrible past. There is one more chapter to this story, and I will try to get it posted tonight. So until then, please leave your reviews, and thank you all so very much for reading, everypony.

EPILOGUE

We sat in our dining room, finally home at last after our long adventure. Typically, we used the smaller kitchen table for our eating, but this night, we were all seated at the large mahogany table, an antique carved piece of furniture which eight ponies could sit at comfortably. Budder always referred to it as "The Big King Table", and said it reminded her of a huge dining table in a castle somewhere. If it was a table fit for royalty, it was only appropriate for our meeting. Across from the three of us sat the Princess of the Night herself.

"We...um...I want to thank you again for clearing up the mystery surrounding the mine, Drake." Luna said. "I hope the sum I have given you three is what you consider..."

"Enough?" I interjected. I grinned. "It is, Your Highness...more than enough, actually."

"It is the very least I could do." Luna Replied. "And as to the request you made..."

"Can we speak privately about that?" I asked. I glanced over to see Dashie staring at me questioningly. "It's nothing...just some private matters Her Majesty is helping me with, sweetheart." I said with a smile. Rainbow Dash nodded as I stood, mussed Budder's mane, and walked out of the room with Princess Luna. I found myself standing in the formal parlor, and poured myself two ounces of cognac in a crystal highball glass. I felt Luna's presence behind me.

"Milady..." I said. I turned to the princess.

"We closed the door." She answered.

"Hm. Can I offer you a drink?"

"Mmm. Do you have a nice Pinot Noir?" She asked.

"Heh...of course the Princess of the Night wants Pinot Noir..." I replied with a small smile. "I have a Chateau Le Tour Pinot." I pulled a bottle from the rack below the small bar. I sat down my glass, and used a corkscrew to open the wine bottle, then gently poured a gold-rimmed wine glass full and handed it to the princess. She took it in hoof, and swirled the dark red liquid, smelling the aroma lightly.

"It smells...heavenly." She remarked. "Thank you."

"The least I can do." I said. "To the pony who cured me of my night terrors."

"After confronting your past on your latest excursion, you will no doubt be freed of the darkness that has plagued you all of these years." To that, I just sighed, and raised my glass in a toast.

"Your Highness, you have a magical way of coming right out and sayin' exactly what you mean." She smiled, and we both took a sip of our drinks. We were both silent for a few seconds.

"The fort will be preserved." Luna finally stated. "I have seen to it personally that the structure, as well as some of the surrounding land has been purchased by the government, and will be made into a historical site." I turned away, and took another drink of my cognac, my hoof shaking slightly.

"Thank you, milady..." I whispered. "You don't know how much this means to me..."

"You only wish to honor the memories of those dear to you..." Said Luna, her voice full of compassion. "And it is good to honor those who have gone. Leave it to me, my dear Drake. I will see it done." I took another drink, and let the fine brandy sit on my tongue for a moment, then swallowed.

"Again...thank you so much, Your Highness." I turned to her, and she was looking at me somewhat sadly. I gave her a smile and a nod. "I mean...thank you, Luna." She smiled back. "How can I ever repay you?"

"By continuing to be my friend." The princess replied.

"That, I can promise you." I returned. She took a drink of the wine and smiled warmly. Luna held up the glass.

"And thank you for the wine, my dear friend. To repay you, I shall send you a bottle from my own private cellar. Perhaps a twenty year old Syrah..."

"You spoil me." I smiled. "That's a very expensive drink, Luna..."

"I know...but I'll never drink it. I am not a...fan of that vintage. You will be doing me a favor by taking it, really." She said, her voice getting rather haughty. Then I saw her open an eye and glance at me, obviously to see if I were buying her story. I chuckled.

"Alright...you talked me into it." I said. She shot me a smile.

"I will take my leave now, Drake." Luna stated. "I am sure you wish to spend some quiet...relaxation time with your family after your adventure and whatnot." She sat the now-empty wine glass down on the mantle and leaned in, kissing me on the cheek before I could say anything. When she again looked at me, the princess had a slight blush to her cheeks. "Farewell for now, my loyal detective. I shall be in touch." With that, the Princess of the Night exited the room, leaving me to roll my eyes and finish my cognac. I looked at the four books in their special place on the mantle and smiled. I scoffed, and drained the glass.

"Well troopers..." I said, looking at the books. "If only you could see your lieutenant now...paid in gold, and getting smooched by a princess."

So ends volume 7 of One Pony's Tale: The Drake Chronicles. I hope this was an enjoyable read for all of you. The saga is not over yet, and volume 8 is one of my personal favorites. You will no doubt enjoy one of Drake's zaniest adventures yet, coming soon. Very soon, in fact. I may have chapter one up tomorrow! So stay tuned for more of The Drake Chronicles, and I will keep writing them. Thanks for reading, everypony.